An innocent and commonsense suggestion, made by my partner, which left me paralysed with dread.

Just months before I had attempted to hang a clothes dryer in our laundry, a project that initially went well but eventually left us with a burst water pipe, a large hole in a wall, and about $500 lighter in the wallet.

The fact is, while I am making an effort to improve my skills, I am not an overly competent home handyman, and I am not alone.

There is a widely held belief that today's younger man is not the multi-talented do-it-yourselfer that earlier generations may have been.

A combination of factors has been identified as the likely cause of this drop-off; the rise of technology, time pressures, and general laziness chief among them.

The Y Generation is simply more likely to pay someone to deal with their needs rather than attempt to handle them personally.

Curtin University adjunct professor David Buchbinder says the trend reflects a change in the concept of masculinity.

"It runs on all fours certainly with other things that are happening more broadly in the culture which is the notion of outsourcing," he said.

"In a culture in which consumerism and consumption are the kind of key notes, becoming a horny-handed son of the soil and doing it yourself is not necessarily regarded as a plus.

"If say 30 or 40 years ago the ability to put together a table was a measure of your masculinity, now the measure is whether you can afford to get someone else to do it."

Opportunity lost

Liam is a 30-year-old journalist in Perth.

In his own words, Liam's handyman skills are very poor despite growing up on a farm in a family of self-reliant personalities.

"My dad was a shearer and mulesing contractor and bushie, and he knows how to do everything," he said.

"While I had the opportunity to learn these things I never bought into it and I struggle to know why because of my family background.

"I'm from the country and I should have the skills; I simply do not."

"The extent of my capabilities is I can change a tyre on a car, and I can change the oil and water but that's about it.

"I'm great at putting holes in walls inadvertently, but fixing them or fixing anything in general, count me right out."

Liam says while he still hopes to develop some skills around the house, for now he's content to let others do what needs doing.

"I had the opportunity to learn these things and it never occurred to me that I would need to," he said.

"I think I'm of the generation where rather than doing something ourselves we would far prefer to pay someone to do it for us."

It's that attitude towards home maintenance that has seen a surge in home handyman type businesses over the past decade.

Orla Daly, from Perth's Men Behaving Handy, says hiring someone to deal with tasks around the home gives people a sense of reassurance and certainty.

"It's probably something they could do themselves but people tend to be time deprived these days," she said.

"They may not want to go through the hassle of going out, buying screws, buying drill pieces or drills or whatever else they might need to buy, and equally doing the job itself.

"They don't want to spend their free time doing errands and handyman stuff around the house."

Ms Daly says no job is too small for the company's staff who are happy to put a nail in the wall and hang a picture, a quite common task.

"Sometimes people will call and say 'I don't know if this is to small for you but I've got such and such to be done'," she explained.

"Sometimes they say 'I know it's only a small job but it probably won't take long' to justify it."

The company also offers a service for that most annoying of growth industries: flat pack furniture assembly.

"We do get a good few requests for flat pack assembly," Ms Daly said.

"It's a good example of something you could probably do yourself but it's a bit fiddly and kind of a pain.

"People just don't want to waste their time doing it."

A matter of perception

Convenience aside, should today's male feel any less capable than his handy predecessors?

Liam says he has mixed feelings.

"There is a slight feeling of almost shame when I think my parents could do this," he said.

"I have cousins and friends who could do this, I don't know how to do this, I feel like I should be able to do these things."

What about his other, less hands-on talents?

"There's not really a compensation," he said.

"I mean I know how to do some things and they don't but in terms of doing things with your hands it's a very manly thing to do, and to not be able to do those things, to not be able to fix a door or anything like that, it sort of almost diminishes you.

"So, you've got to try not to focus on it.

"You've got to find something else to latch on to and my skill with words is something that I have to latch on too."

David Buchbinder says the change in perception of masculinity is complicated.

"I have to say that my own experience has been that when I have workmen in, and I've had quite a few in recent months, there's certainly a sense of a distinction between them and me," he said.

"From their perspective, I imagine they probably think of me as ineffectual and unable to do some of these things for myself.

"From my perspective, why should I if I can afford to get someone in and do it who's more expert at it?

"It's all fine to say I must learn to do a bit of plumbing, but when you practice on your own plumbing and it goes wrong you still have to get the experts in."

The other side

Do DIY skills make a man more desirable?

A non-scientific poll of women by this writer, asking if DIY talents make a man more attractive returned a range of answers from "absolutely it does" to "everyone of either gender should have basic skills" to "not really".

Liam says it hasn't been an issue for him in the past.

"It hasn't directly affected my relationships in the past but I guess there is the dream of the hot tradie," he said.

"I don't have that going for me, I could be as attractive as you like but I can't fix things and I can't build things.

"I'd like to think I have other things to bring to the table, conversation and such."

David Buchbinder says relationships are built on more than what a man can do around the house.

"I imagine it's very useful to have someone who can fix things or build things or so on," he said.

"But, I'm not sure though that as a general trend that women would regard a man who's handy as better or more desirable as one that wasn't."

"I think there are other factors that come into play, and some of them are fairly trivial and shallow, and some of them are reasonably profound."

For the record, the afore-mentioned cat door is in and performing admirably but I never have been able to face that laundry wall again.